The mysterious mass deaths of about 140,000 antelope within a space of two weeks are the surest signs yet of an impending Blood Moon apocalypse, conspiracy theorists have claimed.

As Inquisitr reported earlier, thousands of antelope perished this past week in Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia, leaving zoologists baffled about the possible reasons which could have triggered the untimely deaths. Though scientists later claimed that a bacteria-produced toxin was the probable cause of their deaths, it is still not clear how a harmless bacteria could assume such a life-threatening force.

However, according to Sunday Express, a bunch of conspiracy theorists now claim to have resolved the mystery (or possibly complicated it further). Several conspiracy theory websites have linked the antelope mass deaths to the impending “Blood Moon apocalypse,” a prophecy made by various Biblical theorists that the arriving lunar eclipse at the end of September will bring forth the doom of our planet as we know it. Though the prophecy has been met with much cynicism, conspiracy theorists have sought to unravel the mystery of the antelope deaths by citing it as a precursor to the eventual “apocalypse” that now awaits our planet.

Among even more bizarre claims were ones that claimed that the antelope mass deaths are a result of experiments carried out by aliens. Scott C Waring, an editor at the UFO Sightings Daily website, explained reason behind the antelope mass deaths as follows.

“This Antelope mass death was an experiment by aliens. It is well known to the Kazakhstan Government that aliens are making use of an underwater base in the Caspian Sea which Kazakhstan borders.”

While the Kazakh government has itself not clarified the reasons for the deaths of its antelope, the Head of Azerbaijan’s national Aerospace Agency has previously claimed that erstwhile USSR did in fact monitor ‘alien’ spaceships entering its waters.

Scientists, however, appear to attribute the deaths to a much simpler problem: poaching. The powdered horns of these endangered antelope species, called Saiga, are sold for $2 a gram in Chinese medicine markets, leading to a staggering 95 percent decline in the antelope populations in the last 25 years.

In any case, the sudden case of antelope mass deaths has caused a hysteria among zoologists and animal-lovers alike, and with the Blood Moon just around the corner (September 27), it is hardly surprising that conspiracy theories linking the two have found an upsurge on Internet.